YEREVAN/BAKU September 6, 2025
By Azerbaijan.US Editorial Board
Politics in the South Caucasus today can be read not in communiqués or treaties, but in food and furniture. Azerbaijan is making dolma. Armenia is trapped in a tea house.
Dolma is discipline. Each grape leaf is wrapped with care, each portion placed in balance. It is a meal that demands patience, attention, and precision. That is Azerbaijan’s diplomacy: wrapping together ties with Turkey, Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East into a dish that holds. Energy pipelines, transit corridors, and peace agreements are the rice and meat inside the leaf. It is nourishing, it is filling, and it can be served on the world stage.
A tea house, on the other hand, is chatter. The tables are crowded, the samovars are steaming, but nothing is built. Armenia under Nikol Pashinyan wanders from one table to another – Washington, Beijing, Tokyo – sipping endlessly, never cooking. Every guest has an opinion, every waiter makes promises, but in the end, nobody leaves with a meal. A tea house fills the air with noise, not the stomach with substance.
That is Armenia’s tragedy: mistaking conversation for policy, confusing hospitality with strategy. Tea is warm but fleeting; it evaporates into steam. Dolma endures, sustaining a family, a nation, a generation. Azerbaijan invests in corridors and infrastructure; Armenia invests in ceremonies and communiqués. One leaves you stronger. The other leaves you hungrier.
The choice before the region is stark. Will the South Caucasus be a kitchen, where dolma is prepared carefully to feed the future? Or will it remain a tea house, where politicians sip endlessly and argue until the cups are empty and the rent is due?
This editorial reflects the position of the Azerbaijan.US Editorial Board, which supports Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and security, while advocating for democratic governance at home.
